Snow Is Not The Only Thing Falling

W started the whole ghastly affair. Only a day or two had passed before he fell off the back porch stairs, which resulted in a few scrapes and tears.  Little did we know, that was the beginning of several horrible occurrences with stairs.

I was the next one to fall victim. My parents have a rather larger wooden staircase in their house and I managed to fly over a few before plummeting to the bottom. I wish I only had a few scrapes and tears, but my entire left side, from elbow to ankle, felt broken. My hip and thigh took the worst of it and quickly displayed a black and purple bruise the size of my head! It was extremely painful to say the least, and I quickly realized how often my left leg was touched throughout the day...A revelation I could have lived without. The funny thing was that as my bruise grew, it formed a perfect giant heart. The not so funny thing is that it lasted for a month.

O was next to challenge the stairs. He fell down the same wooden staircase and 'bonkaded' his head.

He slowly re-enacted what happened.

Wight he-uh. I bonkeded my head, wight he-uh.

E fell going UP the stairs, and yes, it was just as traumatic. O then fell again going down the basement stairs. This time he was holding onto the railing. He managed to hold on and slide down the railing as his lower half fell down several stairs.

Watch out A! You're next! We joked that A would be the next to fall. He took extra precaution.

Time For The Show!

The girls planned a SHOW at the end of each evening. Very entertaining.

Music

Dancing

Laughter

Audience participation

Even E's signature 'Chicken Wing' dance performed by O

Great MC skills

Fabulous shows. You can't beat the guitar screamin'  'Love Shack' while 'The Running Man' makes an appearance in sparkly shoes. Awesome.

Traditional Fat Noodles

Every year we save the Thanksgiving turkey carcass , the gravy, and left over turkey in order to make our traditional Fat Noodles. It's a recipe my mom learned from her Italian Grandmother and I can't imagine the Christmas holidays without it. It's not only one of my favorite meals, but one of my favorite leftovers.
I was queen of noodles for years, until my brother-n-law entered the picture and loved them too. It was a toss up on who could eat the most noodles. Then, as my nephews grew older, my throne was being threatened. Each year I had to convince my mom we needed more. We had to make another batch of noodles in order to feed everyone. One year, we made 10 batches that included 10 pounds of flour, 4 dozen eggs, and several turkeys. We had every counter, the bar, and the dining room table covered in noodles.

Last year was the first year the girls joined in on the making of noodles. They were just as excited to be big helpers again.

We wake up early to mix, roll, cut, stretch, and lay out the noodles for the day. The broth has been going for two days at this point. 

This year we made 5 batches that took up half of Grandma's gigantic dining room table while drying. It was the perfect amount. I could eat as much as I wanted and we had the perfect amount of leftovers. But you see, unfortunately, this year we didn't have my sister with all her boys, nor my other brother-n-law. So, fortunately, there wasn't any pressure to eat a queen's worth of noodles.

All that work and it's gone so quickly. Mmmm...Fat Noodles...A great family tradition.

Hard To Jump In Snow

We visited Great Grandma and the kids discovered the trampoline in the back yard.

The kids had a great time jumping on the trampoline.

 They sure got a workout jumping with all that snow.

 O joined in the fun. Look at him...crawling through the "snowman" with his bare hands. Crazy? "Snowman" is what the boys call snow. ;)

Slippin' and sliddin'.

It'snowjoke!

We really did have snow for Christmas. It was amazing! 

The kids had plenty of fun with the snow, enjoying all 4-5 inches before it began to melt away. Just running through it brought on the giggles. Then if you add snowballs, the boys, especially O, were having a blast.

 

Walking in a winter wonderland.

 

Snowballs

Attempting a snowman. You know, all we had for O was really thin mittens and we couldn't believe he played for hours outside in the snow.

W had to get some vacuuming in at some point. It was a mess out there!

Kicking the snow off the trailer.

O is crazy. He even went outside at one point without shoes. Barefoot.

Just walking along...no big deal.

When E and L went outside, the wind picked up and all the snow from a gigantic tree began to fall. It was a pretty awesome. They froze in place.

They thought it was clear to go down the path, but the wind just swirled the snow all about, creating a small blizzard. They came running back to the house. Such weather, my goodness!

Christmas

It is tradition that Santa leaves the filled stockings at the foot of each bed. When everyone wakes, it is the stocking that becomes the first gift of Christmas morning. It is also a silent plea to stay in your bed a little longer. A grew up with this tradition and with 8 kids in his family, it was a brilliant idea. He and his siblings spent a little extra time munching on tangerines and candy, fingering pudding, trying on new socks, or thumbing through baseball cards. Right now, the boys can't reach their stockings from within their cribs and E goes through hers at record speed before bringing it to us. We collect the boys and form a huge mass on our bed to just be together to talk, tickle and laugh before we start the Christmas craziness.

The kids wait at the top of the stairs until it's time to go down.

We scream and go crazy over the gifts Santa brought us and then the kids play while A and I make breakfast. After breakfast, we open the gifts under the tree.

 W had several fun gifts, but his favorites would have to be the toothpaste from his stocking (you can see him holding it on the stairs, which he held just about the entire morning) and his vacuum.

O loved his matchbox cars and fire station. But he loved ALL of his trucks, trains, and cars.

E loved everything! Her face just lite up with each gift.  If you ask her what her favorite is she will seriously name everything. If I had to choose, it would be her ballet shoes or her Handy Manny dress up clothes and tools. There have been plenty of times that we see a ballerina or a fairy building elaborate homes for her Little Bear. 

With A and I, we had a funny gift exchange. We both secretly ordered canvas prints from the same company. A ordered a family print and I ordered one of the kids. I expected my package in the mail, but when two showed up, one being in his name, I had to laugh. What are the chances?

One of the best things about this Christmas was a WHITE Christmas. It was the first time in several decades. It snowed all day and throughout the night. So fun.

We traveled to Grandma and Pa's house Christmas afternoon and it was so exciting to see the snow blanketing the trees with the twinkle of Christmas lights.

Here's the mountain close to Grandma and Pa's house. 

You see it, right?

We finally made it! Time to relax, eat, play games, eat, play in the snow, eat, and...eat.

Christmas Eve

We traveled to Granny and Paw Paw's house for Christmas Eve festivities. We all contributed to the meal and this year A and I had a small competition. A few days prior to Christmas Eve, we were watching America's Test Kitchen. A liked the recipe for Delmonico Potatoes, which originated in Paris, and I was already planning to bring Scalloped Potatoes. I made mine and he was completely in charge of his, which was so adorable. At dinner, we decided to let everyone vote on which one was better. Turns out, they liked them both...but they liked mine better. ;)

We then had the nativity story told to us with music by the famous Perry Como, which is a family tradition. Family members, usually the children, get to place a character within the creche as each one is introduced in the story. E was excited to have Mary this year.

Before we headed home, Paw Paw read T'was The Night Before Christmas for the grandkids, another holiday tradition.

W was entertained with a bottle of hand sanitizer for the entire story.

 

Once we got home, we hurried to get on our new Christmas pajamas and then write a note for Santa. We left out cookies, milk, and carrots for the reindeer. Everyone hurried to bed so Santa would find us sleeping when he arrived. Well, the kids hurried to bed, but Mommy and Daddy were busy with last minute Christmas details...do we have enough batteries?

Nutcracker Dress

I decided to sew E's dress for the Nutcracker. It was going to have a wool cape to match, but the high price of wool was not in my budget. The 50% off holiday fabric, however, definitely fit my budget.  

 

As we (notice I said we) thumbed through the fabric, I asked which one she would like. There were several gorgeous choices, so I let her pick. There were greens, blacks, grays, reds, silver and gold. There were plaids, polk-a-dots, stripes, velvets and glitter. She looked rather quickly and selected a rich green taffeta.

Then I asked her to choose a second fabric for her sash. She chose a cream taffeta with black velvet flowers. Excellent choice.

E was so excited to see the dress coming together. I was just relieved it was finally coming together. I make things hard for myself when I don't follow a pattern, which I usually don't, BUT I did try to follow this one and it was just confusing! I finally made it happen though. To make things even more difficult, I couldn't find my zipper foot to sew the zipper in the back. Yea...I still put it in though...very carefully.

Here's where E's modeling/silliness takes over. 

 Don't you love the knobless doors on my hutch? Who could've done that? Hmmm...

 

The black petticoat was fun. It was similar to a crinoline, but with a lot more tulle.

 Showing her nutcracker. 

Just like Clara in The Nutcracker, E's cradling her nutcracker.